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"Over the last 13 years we've witnessed truly incredible talent take to the Britain's Got Talent stage and now they'll go head to head with the best Got Talent acts from around the world, in what promises to be the Olympics of Talent," producers said.

2007 winner of the show Paul Potts arriving for the final of Britain's Got Talent, at The Fountain Studios in Wembley, north London.

The six-week show launches on August 31 with judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and David Walliams.

Presenting duo Ant and Dec return, as "the best of British take on the world", following the success of the Got Talent format around the globe.

Each week, two acts will make it through to the grand final - a Golden Buzzer act picked by a judge or Ant and Dec, and another selected by the arena audience.

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Other names taking part include previous winners, magician Richard Jones and musical theatre group Collabro.

Producers said international acts "set to wow the audience" include a Ukrainian sand artist and "what could be the most terrifying performer yet, The Sacred Riana".

Paul Potts, 48, shot to fame 12 years ago as the very first winner. Before his fame he was a student at the University of St Mark and St John in Plymouth - studying theology.

He will join legends from the last 13 series, who will compete against each other to be crowned the ultimate champion, reports The Mirror .

Father-and-son duo Stavros Flatley are among the big names taking to the BGT stage once more. Jai McDowall, who won in 2011, is back, as are 2014 winners Collabro, magician Ben Hart and dance duo Twist and Pulse.

Ashleigh Butler is returning without Pudsey, who sadly died two years ago and is being replaced by Sully.

Comedians Lost Voice Guy and Jack Caroll will also be bringing the laughs.

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Reigning champion Colin Thackery will be belting out a song once again.

However, there is a huge change to the usual format as viewers won't be able to vote for their favourite.

Each week, two acts make it through to the grand finale, but instead of being chosen by those at home a Golden Buzzer act will be chosen by one of the judges or Ant and Dec, while the second is voted through by superfans in the arena audience.

Paul wowed the audiencand judges at his BGT audition more than 12 years ago with a stunning operatic performance, but he remembers it almost didn't happen.

(Image: Ken McKay)

"To be honest, there were several points during that song when I thought about walking away.

"I fluffed a top B, and I kept thinking how silly it was that I was there with Simon Cowell …" he says with a slight grimace.

"I’d given up on a career in singing by this point – dreams are things you dream of, not things you think will happen."

Luckily, Paul didn’t let his feet do the talking. Paul has now sold more than five million albums, Taylor Swift has written a song about him called Sweeter Than Fiction, and James Corden has played him in Hollywood biopic One Chance.

"So now I have fast-drying clothes that I wash in the hotel room sink and hang above the bath."

Surely Paul has access to all the designer gear his heart desires nowadays?

"I’ve been given some designer gear, but the fit is never good. I don’t know anyone who has a body like this," he says, miming broad shoulders and a narrow waist. "That’s for cartoon characters!"

Paul’s own physique is as robust as it was when he first shot to fame, and despite Sweeter Than Fiction containing the lyric, "There you’ll stand, 10 feet tall," he’s so diminutive in stature that Taylor Swift towered over him when they met in person.

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"She is a great songwriter, a very tall person in general," says Paul with a smile.

"But I look small compared to most people. Well, in height terms, not in other ways."

Paul has now given over 900 performances in 44 countries and has a new album – he’s surprisingly popular in South Korea, a country he’s now visited dozens of times.

"I’ve been chased by Korean policeman who want selfies," he says.

"And I had a Korean fan who came to my hometown in Wales and stood outside my house. It’s funny when I get super fans – I’m just a normal person who gets to do what he loves."

Luckily, his wife Julie-Ann is used to the attention.

Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins sings with Paul Potts at the Katherine in the Park event in the grounds of Margam Park in South Wales.

For the first few years after Paul won BGT, she travelled the world with him, but Paul explains she now prefers to stay at home – "It’s harder for a woman to live out of a suitcase."

The couple met 16 years ago in an online chatroom.

"We messaged for a couple of weeks, and spoke on the phone a few times," he says, smiling at the memory.

"I hadn’t seen a picture of her, but I sent her one of me – she could have easily done a runner. We met at eight minutes past 10 at Swansea railway station – she always rolls her eyes when I say that."

Paul and Julie-Ann enjoy the simple things in life.

"I like to think I’m a good cook, but Julie-Ann says I use every pan in the house!" he laughs.

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"But I don’t want to look like a freak show when I’m singing, and it was something that made me feel very self-conscious. I don’t smile very often, but when I do, I no longer have to worry about what people think."

Sadly, Paul has spent too much of his life worrying about what other people think.

He was badly bullied from the age of seven to when he left school, and his teeth were broken when he was a teen running away from his tormentors.

"When you get bullied for as long as I did, you just learn to live with it," he says, lowering his head over the cappuccino he now nurses with both hands.

Paul Potts during Global's Make Some Noise Day 2017

"There are a lot of suicides because of bullying, but I didn’t think I even deserved that."

Paul was marked out at an early age by the mean kids at school: his love of singing set him apart, and he wore uniform when no one else did, because his parents – a bus driver and a shop cashier – weren’t ‘well-blessed’ with money and it was easier for him to wear the same thing every day.

A few years before he found fame, some of the bullies contacted Paul to apologise for the way they treated him. Despite the misery of what he’d been through, Paul decided to forgive them.

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"You give the abuse more voice by holding onto it too long and not letting go of it.

"Bullies don’t just affect part of your youth, it shapes part of who you are as a person.

"I wouldn’t want to go through what I went through as a teen, but at the same time it gave me the armour I need for what I do now."

But there was a darker side to the bullying that Paul kept quiet for many years.

"When you value yourself so little that you don’t think you even deserve to die, then you’re easy prey for anyone who wants to try to control you," Paul says, referring to the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of his sea cadet captain at an afterschool club (who was later jailed for 15 years for indecently assaulting several other children).

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"Others had reported it and done something about it, while I just went to the trial to watch, because I couldn’t face having to go through it all again," he says with a small shrug of his shoulders.

"I gave myself a hard time, but I allowed it to happen because I had that little self worth. It doesn’t matter who tried to abuse me, I would’ve just let it happen.

"You try to find a reason, and because there isn’t one, you end up internalising it and blaming yourself, thinking that if you were more valuable that it wouldn’t have happened."

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Paul’s written about the sexual abuse in a biography he furiously tapped out himself, sometimes going without sleep so he could get his story down on paper.

But he chose not to tell the writers of his movie One Chance, because he wanted the film to be uplifting, the ultimate tale of the underdog who wins.

It’s time to let Paul get on with his long journey back to Wales. His house might be (a lot) bigger, but he still lives in the same little town that he did in his days as a singing phone salesman, and he drives a second-hand Audi. This is one celeb, at least, who’s not letting fame change his tune...

"He did a good job in the film, but I haven’t seen him since. Did we get on well? We got on OK. The first time I met him he’d just had his car broken into and said he’d had everything taken but his dirty laundry. My wife laughed at this, and he said, “I’ve had everything taken and you’re laughing.” She said, “Well, you’re the comedian.” I think he laughed in the end…"